1. Life

2. Activism
     Area of Dispute    Related Conflict  

3. Death

4. References

5. Juan Ontiveros Ramos

Juan Ontiveros Ramos (c. 1975 - January 31, 2017) was a community leader, environmental activist, and aboriginal rights activist for the Tarahumara people in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Life

Ramos lived approximately a day-and-a-half journey from Chihuahua City in a small area called Choréachi community, part of the Sierra Tarahumara.^[1]. He was a leader of the Tarahumara Indigenous People, and he was in charge of the security issues of the Choréachi community^[2].

Activism

Especially in the months leading up to his death, Juan Ontiveros Ramos had been a driving force in local activism. He attended a government meeting to discuss the security of farmland in Choréachi on January 20th 2018{{cn}} and alerted local authorities of the influence of some organized crime in the community just days prior to his death^[3]. Years prior, he had also been active outside the local area when he released a statement to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights during another meeting In October 2015; it detailed many of the problems the Sierra Tarahumara communities were facing.{{cn}} It is believed that his activism was the reason for his kidnapping and subsequent death.

Area of Dispute

In Sierra Tarahumara resides many generations of the indigenous Tarahumara people. More than 600 indigenous people live throughout the territory among 50 rancherías^[4]. Official registries of their settlements have existed since colonial times, solidifying the longevity and legality of the habitation of their land. However, in the last several years, adjacent, non-indigenous groups have disputed borders. These disputes have heightened through illegal logging and land grabbing for illicit crop harvesting on the ancestral lands of the Tarahumara people and harassment of indigenous and human rights activists.

Related Conflict

The Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua states, also known as the “The Golden Triangle," has been becoming more dangerous due to an increase in organized crime and lack of government intervention^[1]. This area has witnessed the expansion of powerful and dangerous drug cartels, such as the Sinaloa Cartel, because of the cultivation of heroin and marijuana. Drug traffickers work with the timber harvesters of the community to move their product, which brings the traffickers and cartels close to the local indigenous people^[1]. In some cases, authorities themselves are corrupt and work with criminal gangs in moving and supplying the drugs to the area^[5]. The cartels have been known to intimidate the native people with violence, with five environmental activists having been killed in the area since 2013^[6].

Death

On January 31, 2017, while Juan Ontiveros Ramos was in the car with his brother, a group of unidentified armed men intercepted the vehicle and beat both Ramos and his brother, taking Ramos with them when they left. The next day, February 1, 2017, Ramos’s body was found in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua. On February 2, 2017, the motive of the crime was determined to be personal retribution by the local police^[7]

Ramos was the second indigenous activist to be killed in Mexico within that month, the first being Isidiro Baldenegro López on January 15, 2017^[1].

References

Juan Ontiveros Ramos

• Sir John Musgrove, 1st Baronet
• Sir John Napier, 4th Baronet
• Sir John Narborough, 1st Baronet
• Sir John Newport, 1st Baronet
• Sir John Newton, 2nd Baronet
• Sir John Nicholl
• Sir John Nicolson, 2nd Baronet
• Sir John Ninian Cooper
• Sir John Norton, 3rd Baronet
• Sir John Norwich, 1st Baronet
• Sir John Oglander
• Sir John Ormsby Vandeleur
• Sir John Paget Mellor, 1st Baronet
• Sir John Pakington (1549–1625)
• Sir John Palgrave, 1st Baronet
• Sir John Palmer, 5th Baronet
• Sir John Parker
• Sir John Parnell
• Sir John Parnell, 2nd Baronet
• Sir John Pate
• Sir John Pate, 1st Baronet
• Sir John Patteson
• Sir John Pearson, QC
• Sir John Pennefather, 1st Baronet
• Sir John Pennington